2nd Leisure battery

[jm-darcy]

Hello everyone.

I was hoping for a little bit of advice if anyone is able to help?

I have a 2018 T6 Reimo conversion from CMC.

100W solar panel bonded to the roof feeding a Victon 75/15 MPPT, a leisure battery under the passenger seat. A Merlin SmartBank Pro 12v Split Charger and a Carbest smart charger for when on hook-up.

I am contemplating adding a second leisure battery under the driver’s seat to take the stress out of longer stays away without hookup and a lack of sun, a constantly running fridge, occasional nightime heating, lights and USB chargers.

I was hoping for some advice on whether adding a second battery was the best course of action given the established design installed in the van? I know that going to Lithium would ultimately be better, but given our use-case, all the rewiring, new lithium-related kit, cost of batteries, etc. I question whether these combined would cost a great deal more compared to adding a second battery. Perhaps I am wrong?

Is it easy to run cables between the seats? Are the Victron, Split charger and Hookup chargers okay to be connected to two-off parallel-wired batteries (noting charging will take twice as long)? I am aware that both batteries need to be the same rating.

I have searched the forum and youtube, but nothing seemed to jump out. Is this a sensible, common and relatively straight forward thing to do?

Thanks in advance for any advice you might be able to provide.

 

[Dellmassive]

got any pics of the setup?

yes you can add another battery . . . though normally its recommended to fit two like for like battery's - same make, model, and same SOH.

so basically two NEW battery's would be the way to go.

++

other costs will be fueses, terminal cables to interconect the two. - there is a route under the carpet between the seat bases.

+++

the other option is One 100ah Lifepo4 is equivilent to TWO AGM`S.

lithium is my preference. . . for a multitude of reasons. . they are down to £299 for a basic one these days.

your MPPT charger will be good for it.

you may have to check the EHU charger and DC-DC charger . . . to see if it can do 14.2v or have a lithium profile.

have a look at some seat base setups here:

Seat Base Electric + EHU + Solar Install + Charger + DC-DC -- How We Done it --

Seat Base Electric + EHU + Solar Install + Charger + DC-DC -- How We Done it -- id like to build a thread showing what's possible as regards to seat base builds. lets post a collection of our electrical installs, be it in the seat base or rear conversion. just EHU or SCR/VSR, charger, DC-DC...

www.t6forum.com

and lithium battery stuff here:

Dellmassive’s "How I Done It" blogs.

-- Dellmassive`s -- "How I Done It" -- thread -- ************************************************** Dellmassive`s -- "how I Done It" -- Thread ************************************************** Kit List And Stuff -- How I Done It & What I Use --...

www.t6forum.com

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